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I Think It's Fine

Posted by: enoch10 11:43 pm EDT 08/16/14
In reply to: Check out the logo for February's Parade concert - MikeR 02:08 pm EDT 08/15/14

seriously. it's what the musical is about. this whole sort of tippy toeing around being afraid of offending somebody is, like this whole idea of trigger warnings, ridiculous.

not just in relation to this, of course, i'm not aiming this at you but there seems to be such a desire going on today to avoid even the possibility of stepping on some special little snowflake's toes. i find this counterproductive (if well intentioned) at best. i'll take my art with a healthy dose of irreverence, thank you.

again, i've extended the parameters of the discussion far afield of your objections to this specific poster art. i'm not just being contrary. i really do think it's fine.


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re: I Think It's Fine

Posted by: Ann 10:09 am EDT 08/17/14
In reply to: I Think It's Fine - enoch10 11:43 pm EDT 08/16/14

I agree that it's fine, though not great, mostly because of the red (I like a Parade logo to reflect the time period - I particularly like the one with the U.S. flag stars and the Confederate flag stars).

I also think the hanging is the shadow that is cast over the whole story (and has been a visible shadow in the productions I have seen - if you knew by history the story, it was more than just a tree). He's not just sentenced to hang, but it was more of a lynching and the story follows the details of what led up to that.

That said, being this week, it happens to be poor timing, though the public forgets quickly (and I don't think the "special little snowflake" applies here, but it certainly happens).


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re: I Think It's Fine

Posted by: enoch10 01:08 pm EDT 08/17/14
In reply to: re: I Think It's Fine - Ann 10:09 am EDT 08/17/14

no, the special little snowflake was an extension of the conversation as i acknowledged. nor was i really responding to the op. i'm just seeing a real fear or reluctance - a timidity - all well intentioned but, i think, creatively neutering. all this trigger warning crap - again, well intentioned - flies in the face of the outrageous, the irreverent, and the joyously offensive. in other words the kind of art i like. the special little snowflakes need to grow a pair. how's that for a mixed metaphor?

it's such an odd way to be old and cranky. the old should be criticizing the young for carrying things too far, not for being too timid.

somehow my post managed to conflate all that extrapolating it out of ... pretty much nowhere.


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re: I Think It's Fine

Posted by: Chromolume 12:11 am EDT 08/17/14
In reply to: I Think It's Fine - enoch10 11:43 pm EDT 08/16/14

it's what the musical is about.

I might debate that. It's certainly how the musical ends - but is it really what the body of the musical is literally about? I'm not trying to play a semantics game - but let's keep in mind that Leo isn't sentenced to die until the end of Act I. (In fact, once could even make a case that for anyone unfamiliar with the Leo Frank case - and I'm sure there are many people to whom that applies - the noose image could even be a spoiler of sorts.)

I'm not saying Leo's hanging isn't ultimately a crucial part of the story. But I'm not sure I'd say the show (as a whole, including all of Act I) is "about" that. It's just one element of the plot.


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re: I Think It's Fine

Posted by: enoch10 12:14 am EDT 08/17/14
In reply to: re: I Think It's Fine - Chromolume 12:11 am EDT 08/17/14

>> I'm not trying to play a semantics game -

i'll take your word for it.

i'm not interested in debating how many percentage points of the play validate "what the play is about". imprecise or not, i stand by what i said. certainly you're welcome to see it differently.


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re: I Think It's Fine

Posted by: Chromolume 04:17 am EDT 08/17/14
In reply to: re: I Think It's Fine - enoch10 12:14 am EDT 08/17/14

I would also say there are of course specific smaller "abouts" (as there are in any story) - the hanging, anti-Semitism (and racism in general), murder and rape, a huge court trial, the mystery of the whole case in general, etc - but to me, I think the overall "about" as it's set up by Brown and Uhry is how a very set, traditional, unyielding society reacts to an outsider. I think songs such as "How Can I Call This Home" set this relationship right from the beginning (with the actual opening "Old Red Hills" sequence setting up the unforgiving world of the post-war South), and it's this feel of the outsider against the community that drives the story for me. Inasmuch as the plot is about the incidents leading to Phagan's death, the trial. and Frank's lynching, to me the more overarching "about" is the community versus the outsider.

And yes, we can all see the show in different ways. ;-)


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